I posted a hello in the welcome thread but decided to make a diary here. Brief backstory… Mum of two, 40, PCOS, insulin resistant. Suffered gestational diabetes during pregnancy and told I’m at high risk of becoming diabetic, Dad and sister both type 2. Been there and done that with every diet with varying success, the only ones that really got me anywhere were low carb but I never made a proper lifetime commitment to them, but now? Well… Life begins at 40 they say, I’m ready. I’ve been ill the past two months (low iron and anxiety/depression) but I’m on my way back and I decided now is the time. I stumbled across this diet whilst listening to a radio programme interviewing Michael Mosley. It wasn’t about the 8 week diet, but people had called in thanking him for it and it was briefly mentioned and caught my attention, so I bought the book, read it, got myself organised and here we are! My heaviest weight a few years ago was 14st 4, and I’m happy to say I didn’t reach that again although I’ve been up and down. My check in weight on day one was 12st 12. I’ve got a fitbit and have been getting my steps per day and using the app to log my food. Pleased to find on the laptop web version that I can monitor the carbs too.

So day one was Tuesday and went like this…

Weight 12st 12
Fasting blood sugar 5.1 (I momentarily felt like a fraud, but hey my body is probably wild with insulin to get there)
steps 10480

Breakfast plain yoghurt and blueberries,
lunch home made scotch egg (no breadcrumb coating) salad
Dinner courgette stuffed with mince, onions, with tomato puree and stock, very small amount of cheese on top.

770 calories 46.3g carb

Day 2

Breakfast- yoghurt and a satsuma

lunch- Scotch egg with salad

Dinner- chicken and cashews. (cooked chicken, onion, broccoli and a chilli in a little olive oil, added chinese five spice, stock, soy sauce and cooked longer then added nuts for last 10 mins) it was so nice! Hubby had it with rice.

780 cals, 50.9g carbs

Day 3

Breakfast- two eggs (whisked up in a cup then added spring onion and ham, fried)

lunch- scotch egg and salad, and a few strawberries.

Dinner- Soup. (made with beef stock, lentils, onion and butterbeans)

I recognise I’ve had too many eggs…but I made a batch of the scotch eggs and they needed eaten 🙂 I’ll vary it up more next week as I will be better organised. The soup recipe was from a website I use a lot for cooking I’ll post the link below. I used this recipe but added a can of butterbeans and a little more water to accommodate the beans. I blended it too. It was really nice and will be lunch tomorrow and probably some frozen.

755 calories, 55.9g carbs

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/14460/just-lentil-soup.aspx?o_is=SR

Here we are on day 4 (I’ll update my food at the days end) but I wanted to check in 🙂

Positives… My scales are showing I’ve lost 3.5lb’s woohoo! I’ve not really felt hungry and I’ve found it easier than I thought to find food to eat. I’m feeling more confident that I can see this through and still enjoy my meals. I’ve been having a lunchtime walk at work to help get my step target I forgot to add my steps to some of my updates but I’ve made my 10000 or more every day.

Negatives… I’ve had some headaches, presumably due to carb withdrawal as well as suddenly not drinking lots of my favourite lady grey tea! (I’ve been having herbal instead) and my IBS had been playing up a little but it did that anyway so I’m not linking it directly to the diet. It can be very random. I have WANTED to eat carbs but I recognise I wasn’t hungry. Unfortunately (lol) I live with a very lean husband who does training and has a ridiculously fast metabolism. He needs to eat a lot including carbs and as I have an 11 year old and a 3 year old I can’t just clear the house of the stuff I’d like to munch.

When I see something would normally just eat and want it, I turn away quickly so as not to dwell on it. If I think about it then usually I eat a single cashew nut or a piece of sugar free gum. So far that has been enough to distract me.

I only work Monday to Thursday so my weekend has started now, and I’m expecting it to be harder to keep my steps up as well as staying on track but I’m feeling like I can do it 🙂

Feel free to point out any flaws in what I’ve done so far, I welcome advice and constructive criticism.

grr meant to post this in the fast 800. oh well it’s here now lol

Well day 4 is almost over, I’m off to bed soon.

steps 10059 🙂

Food..

Breakfast- yoghurt and strawberries

lunch- lentil and butterbean soup

dinner- hunters chicken two tablespoons of rice

calories -690 so I’m low but it was a little on the high carb side today.

Today was good I had some time alone and when I get that I get my camera and get myself out to local historical sites and take pictures. The downside of this I found today is that usually whilst out on these adventures I normally pop in to a cafe and get a hot chocolate, as well as normally having sweets for the car. Today I had… water for in the car lol. However I did manage to avoid temptation and bring on day 5!

Lovely sounding food, Izzy! 🙂

Izzy- seems like we have a lot in common. I’m 42 and have 2 kids and a lean and sporty husband (not that I am jealous of his physique, she says through gritted teeth😃).
I also have strong family history of type 2 diabetes but don’t yet have it myself. I got up to 14 stone 10 and a half at my heaviest but having stuck to the 800 BSD pretty well I am now down to 80.8 kg which the online calculator says is 12 stone 10.
Your food sounds lovely. I posted here really just to say that this is totally doable even with cooking for the family. I have now got them into some pretty good habits even carb free meals now and then without them noticing😊
I am staying around these forums as I still want to lose more. I would like to get down to 70 kilos but 73 would take me down to weight I was when I got married 19 years ago. I’m 5′ 8” but have large frame (always had to buy man’s wrist watch straps as I have large bone structure even there where there is no fat!).
Keep up the good work – I am proof that this is very doable as I have tried multiple times in the past on other methods and failed miserably.
Julia

And I forgot to say that eggs are not bad on this diet. I think someone said that they are the perfect nutritional balance of protein and fat etc. I eat lots as I find they really help me to feel full. The cholesterol thing has I think been disproved?

Hi julia, yeh, the old saying ‘go to work on an egg’ was the correct one!
We actually need the choline in eggs!

I find eggs are useful on this diet, virtually carb free, few calories, filling and versatile!
Don’t know what I would do without them! 🙂

thank you for the replies 🙂 yes the cholesterol thing with the eggs has been debunked. As has much of the previously thought info on cholesterol and why some people are high and others are not. It isn’t that I thought the eggs were bad just that in some ways having too many means I’m not getting the variety of other things. Today though… I’m thinking of buying a spiraliser for veg? pretend pasta lol I might try cauliflower rice later 🙂

I have a headache but I’m not stopping now! Steps will be harder today as my husband is on a late shift and I have my 3 year old who will walk well but so slowly lol. we will go out though and later I’ll make my steps up on our treadmill that hasn’t been used in months. I prefer to go out rather than use it but needs must. I’ll watch a movie or something whilst I walk.

I’m missing a baked potato 🙁

Also I’m only 5ft tall so I need to lose loads but my first target for now is 11 st (70kg) 26lbs from my starting weight.

Hi Izzy, up your water and take some paracetamol for the headache.

Could you play a hop, skip and jump game with your 3 year old while walking with him. It might be slow but lots of exercise!

I love my spiraliser! I got the cuisique one from Amazon. Courgetti is lovely and you can do so many things with it!! 🙂

so today, my daughter was having a hot chocolate topped with whip cream and I thought hmmm I could have a hot chocolate its low calorie and then I looked at the stats. 23g carbs in a serving. twentyflippin’three!!!!!!

I made do with a cup of tea.

Goodness me, 23g of carbs!!!

You could have black coffee with a dollop of cream in it one morning!! 🙂

I don’t like coffee, it isn’t the cream I wanted it’s the chocolate lol. Thankfully I like tea and I’ve been drinking lots of herbal but there’s not really anything like a nice hot choc 🙁

well that’s day 5 about done. As expected I struggled with the steps but I got on the treadmill once my son was asleep and got them done woohoo! Don’t think I’ve had this level of motivation for anything for a long while.

Food
Breakfast yoghurt and raspberries
lunch lentil and butterbean soup
dinner tuna and spring onion with cucumber ‘wraps’ as in wraps made with lettuce. Was actually quite nice.

I was ridiculously low on calories, so I decided to have hot chocolate, but made with whole milk, and a teaspoon of plain cocoa plus sweetner. I’ve not had it yet so I don’t know if it will be good, between that and the soup and the yoghurt it has put my carbs a little high at 63g, but calories only at 593 even with the hot chocolate. I’m just going to go with it I know most of you keep your carbs a little lower but I’m going to see how it goes I will try to keep it generally lower though. It’s certainly remarkably lower than it would have been last week that is for sure.

I’ll report back on the hot chocolate tomorrow…

The hot choc was actually nice 🙂 I cup whole milk, 1 tsp bournville cocoa, 1 sweetner… 152 cals, 12.1g carbs. So can’t be an everyday thing but nice for a treat. maybe once a week will be nice 🙂

today I’ve had my yoghurt and fruit breakfast and going to have a variation of the Cottage pie with cauli mash in the recipes here. I’m not fond of adding anything to my normal mashed potato except for cheese. I’m going to add the spring onions and cheese but not the other additions. Not sure what to have for lunch tho…

I was sceptical about the cauli mash – til I tried it on the cottage pie! Lush!!! 🙂

I didn’t really enjoy the cottage pie but I think I can modify it to my taste so I will try again.

lunch yesterday was an experimental stuffed pepper which turned out yummy, I will do it again, I put it in the recipe thread 🙂

today is a work day and I have a walk with my friend planned later.

breakfast yoghurt and apple

lunch 2 boiled eggs and salad

dinner not sure yet

I’m on day 6, so almost a whole week in!

Well I never had time for lunch today but had a nice stir fry for dinner. Then massive walk tonight in the wind /rain/hail/snow with my friend, we did 11000 steps along the coast and really enjoyed it despite the weather!

I’m having a hot choc now as I was low for carbs and calories so still within limit.

Tomorrow is weigh day and day one of week two ☺

Official week one results are in!! drum roll please…..

I’ve lost 6 lb’s, 1″ off my waist, 1.5″ off my bust and 1.5″ off my hips.

Fasting blood sugars although not particularly high starting at 5.1, has dropped to 4.5.

I’m totally happy with that 🙂

Lets bring on week 2 🙂

Wow that is fantastic Izzy – well done !

Hi Izzy, no wonder you are happy with results like that! 🙂

I know it’s great I don’t think I’ve ever lost that much in one week 🙂 as well as seeing the FBS evidence too.

I also know it will slow down and that’s ok. I’m hoping for 8 lb’s per month that would be awesome. But in reality I’ll take whatever I can get any loss is a step forwards.

Well done Izzy, it looks like you’re all over this.
Yes things will slow down a bit but many of us have now proved that you don’t only get fast weight loss at first, you get consistent steady weight loss following that initial surge apart from the odd plateau.
Best of luck for the next 7 weeks

I’ll be happy if I get a good monthly average 🙂

Todays food

breakfast- strawberries and yoghurt

lunch- cheese salad

dinner- hunters chicken, with courgetti and yellow pepper.

I LOVE courgetti!

This diary is inspiring, thank you for posting. I haven’t started the diet yet. I’m still in the planning stages but I’m hoping to start soon. Seeing Dr this week. This courgette sounds like something I need to seriously look into 😀

Hi Izzypeach, we are here to welcome you when you are ready 🙂

A fellow Izzy yay start soon Izzypeach don’t put it off longer than you really need to, and thank you for your kind words 🙂

So yesterday was day 9

Breakfast yoghurt and blueberries

lunch cheese salad

dinner meatballs with spiralled carrot

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/16449/chinese-pork-meatballs.aspx?o_is=LV

loosely based on the above recipe, I used half a normal onion, no ginger, added the obligatory chilli that goes into almost everything in this house lol. They were quite nice 🙂 I also left out the cornflour, and because of that the mix was quite sloppy. next time I might try only adding one egg but the looser mix perhaps made for a nicer meatball anyway without the meat being too compacted. Hard to know.

I’ve not been posting my steps but my daily average is still above 10000 so I’m pleased about that. My normal previous average would have been probably half that.

I’m 10 days in and it’s passed much faster than I expected. I’ve found I’m not struggling at all at the moment, but I’m not flippant and I know there could still be difficult days ahead.

Today I felt great about the fact I went to get food shopping on an empty stomach… and DID not buy any crap and did not buy anything to eat in the car which historically I would have done 🙂 yay for me. In all honesty I actually didn’t really want anything anyway so I guess my carb cravings for the moment have gone. Very happy with that!

I’m low on steps today but I know I have plenty steps in store tomorrow so my average will stay high enough. I have two separate appointments with the nurse so I’ll be walking there and back twice and will take the long way to make sure.

Food today..

breakfast yoghurt and blueberries

lunch cheese salad

dinner a kind of courgette lasagne… made with layers of sliced courgette in between layers of mince with onions and peppers in tomato, with some cheese on top. Hubby had his with pasta.

I’ve surprised myself with the food and as I’ve been chatting to my trainee at work about it, and he wants my food haha.

my official weigh in is Tuesday but I like to weigh on Friday for a mid-week check in. I’m down another two lb’s 🙂

This morning I mashed up the raspberries I mixed through the yoghurt and it was really nice that way and I’ve bought some little silicon cupcake moulds which I plan to make little crustless quiche thingies in. Am going to try that for lunch today…

Your breakfast and lunch sound delicious Izzy. Congrats on your weight loss.
I’ve been using silicon cupcake moulds for’crustless quiche thingies’ for around a year now – they work beautifully. I find them handy for
portion control.

ours turned out really nicely 🙂 I’ve posted the recipe.

This new approach to food has really got me interested in cooking again and using my imagination to try new things out. It’s great and I’m totally not hungry and don’t feel deprived at all.

Using silicon cupcake cases is a great idea 🙂 thaks for the tip, will definitely be trying those this weekend!

Thanks so much for posting this! I am just starting today and just got the book! So figuring out what I can eat is a little daunting. Your diary is greatly helpful!
How much yogurt and fruit for breakfast?
Today I made the no carb Bircher for breakfast which is 245 cal total and I found online. After 2 hours I was hungry so had 12 almonds.

Big thanks for any advice!!!
🌷

Hi Happylife, good luck with your start! I struggle to get full fat yoghurt at a nearby store so I use a small pot of Yeo valley natural yoghurt it’s 175 grams. I don’t know if it is full fat but it’s the only one in the local shop that doesn’t say ‘low fat’ The fruit is up to you provided you are keeping your carbs low enough and the calories. I’ve had a satsuma one day and an apple another but had to make sure my other meals were lower carbs to compensate. I’m not weighing but it’s a small amount of berries I put in, 2 or 3 strawberries, 5 or 6 raspberries sort of thing. I use my fitbit to log all my food and it keeps me right 🙂

Well today I’ve got my ECG and smear test (yuck) at the doc out of the way, and we’ve been busy gutting out the house. I have scrubbed the bathroom as well as having the bath panel off to fix a leak that’s been … ignored for too long. Glad I finally got around to it because we couldn’t have a deep bath (it was the overflow that was leaking) We decided to chill tonight and play rockband on the xbox, and have a take away.

So for take away I knew I am breaking the diet slightly, but if I’m going to be staying on it for the foreseeable future then it needs to be manageable. We were having Indian food, so I chose a chicken based meal and didn’t have rice or naan etc. It was a chilli/sweet and sour sauce and had carrots and onions, but as my calories were only up to 350 before that and 16g of carbs, I’m feeling quite secure I won’t have gone over the top too much. take aways are only once in a while here so I know 95% of the time I can cook my own and keep on top.

I’ve also filled a jar with a ‘lucky dip’ of my favourite varieties of herbal tea. I was spending too much time deciding which one to have haha, so I’ve got them all jumbled up and get a surprise with every cup. Simple things amuse me as you can probably tell.

Brilliant diary – thanks for sharing!

Glad you liked reading MooLoc, good luck with your journey 🙂

Well here we are another day done. I can’t believe how easy I have still found it. I’m a little scared it could suddenly get harder but so far so good.

Day 12 done
breakfast- yoghurt and raspberries

lunch- didn’t have time, 30g mixed nuts

dinner- a version of chicken and veg from the recipes here, baked in the oven in tomatoes, with courgetti quite nice it was.

Took daughter to the optician earlier and we had a walk around a castle locally (I got married there we love it) so that took care of most of my steps for the day too. Off to take a herbal tea to bed now.

hellooooo again my lovelies, another day done for me. Can’t believe that tomorrow is the last day of week 2, WEEK 2!!!

Had a lovely morning chilling with my husband and kids, then I walked to the shop to buy eggs (we’re getting through a lot of eggs lol) then I cooked us all brunch. I had bacon, fried egg, cherry tomatoes and a couple of freshly picked grilled chilli’s. I forget the name of them but they aren’t spicy ones. I have 3 varieties growing on my window ledge 🙂 Over the years I’ve managed to kill pretty much every plant I’ve had including cacti, but chilli’s… Well I am THE chilli mama. I’ve grown loads from seed and given loads away. We like our chilli’s here lol.

This afternoon was spent re-organising my bedroom whilst watching Game of Thrones. There were a few occasions throwing out rubbish, chocolate wrappers etc that I had a few minor cravings but nothing enough to make me fall off the wagon. To my shame I was a classic secret eater. No more.

Dinner was stuffed courgettes, made with minced beef, onion, green beans, passata and a little cheese.

I was behind with my steps but watched an episode of X-files on my treadmill and all is well with the world of Izzy.

Now, I still have a pile of stuff on my bed to put away so I’m off to do that, then bedtime with a herbal tea and snooooooze time.

I forgot to say… I bought some coconut flour and I might try to make pancakes. Maybe…

Wow Izzy! Huge congrats on completing week 2!! You are an inspiration and I thank you for that!!
Re X Files, newest season or old and if newest what’s your thoughts on it? I want them to continue it! 😄

My husband bought me a box set of the old ones, I remember watching them when I was younger 🙂 I’m currently on season 6. I’ve watched the new series as well and I enjoyed it, pretty sure they will make more as they left it all up in the air!

I loved the first series and watched it also!!

http://www.nourishingdays.com/2010/07/fluffy-coconut-flour-pancakes/

Those are fab 🙂 I’ve found a nice new breakfast! It says in the recipe you can freeze them, so I’m going to make another batch later as the kids are pinching them as fast as I’m cooking them. They take longer to cook than normal pancakes but they turn out nicely and I had some with mashed raspberries 🙂 I may alternate these for my breakfast with my normal yoghurt every second day.

Had a coconut flour pancake disaster this morning, they tasted so eggy, I used the recipe in the book for no carb waffles, it was not nice. This pancake recipe looks amazing and am definitely going to try it. what calorie count do you think it would be izzy.

for about a quarter of the recipe, it works out around 150 calories, 11.5g carbs so not too bad.

I made pea and ham soup for lunch, quite high in carbs but I’ll be careful about dinner.

I’ve had what was left of my pancakes and a few raspberries for dinner, it was mostly for quickness as I’m going out a walk with my friend soon. My calorie count for the day is low, but I’ve had my carbs lol.

I was super proud of myself earlier as I was out with my husband and kids, they all had cake and my daughter even had hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows….and me? yup. I had a nice cup of peppermint tea!

I am so going to lose more weight!

So, week two ends. I haven’t lost since my mid-week check but still that’s 2 lbs off this week making 8 in total.

I’ve lost another inch off my waist too!

FBS 4.7

lets get on with week 3 🙂

Thanks Izzy, have just read your diary. I am struggling with finding recipes that are not for an army. I live alone and quite a few don’t seem to be freezable. Will try the pancakes.One I just looked up needed 6 eggs and I think I would need to eat results for breakfast lunch and dinner for two days. I don’t fancy cold yoghurt for breakfast very much so that will be egg etc time ( live in north Scotland not so many heatwaves ) Am not diabetic & none in family but want to eat healthily and keep well so am moving to this from 5:2 where I seemed to have reached a plateau ( maybe getting bored?) Am slow in getting going as didn’t want to just bin all the food in my freezer and cupboards- but am now ready with coconut flour and packets of nuts to hand. I have a jar of Weight Watchers hot chocolate for fasting days ( found it in Tesco) and it doesn’t taste toooo bad. Do keep posting, you are inspiring lots of us.

Wow Izzy!! 8 lbs is amazing!! Good for you and to lose another inch? Wonderful!! I hope to follow in the inches lost as well!
Great job and thanks for all your inspiring posts!!